by Tim Wise
City Lights Publishers
12/1/2020, paperback
SKU: 9780872868090
Essays on racial flashpoints, white denial, violence, and the manipulation of fear in America today.
In this collection of essays, renowned social-justice advocate Tim Wise confronts racism in contemporary America. Seen through the lens of major flashpoints during the Obama and Trump years, Dispatches from the Race War faces the consequences of white supremacy in all its forms. This includes a discussion of the bigoted undertones of the Tea Party's backlash, the killing of Trayvon Martin, current day anti-immigrant hysteria, the rise of openly avowed white nationalism, the violent policing of African Americans, and more. Wise devotes a substantial portion of the book to explore the racial ramifications of COVID-19, and the widespread protests which followed the police murder of George Floyd.
Concise, accessible chapters, most written in first-person, offer an excellent source for those engaged in the anti-racism struggle. Tim Wise's proactive approach asks white allies to contend with--and take responsibility for--their own role in perpetuating racism against Blacks and people of color. Dispatches from the Race War reminds us that the story of our country is the history of racial conflict, and that our future may depend on how--or if--we can resolve it. "To accept racism is quintessentially American," writes Wise, "to rebel against it is human. Be human."
Reviews:
"A white social justice advocate clearly shows how racism is America's core crisis. Wise comments on a host of events that bear witness to pervasive racism, including reactions to Barack Obama's election, Henry Louis Gates' arrest after being mistaken as a burglar, the rise of the militant tea party, the killing of Black men by police, and the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. 'The biases that ended George Floyd's life were explicit, ' Wise writes. 'Even more, they were part of an institutional and systemic process, whereby unequal treatment of black and brown bodies and communities is normative.' A trenchant assessment of our nation's ills."--*Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"What Tim Wise has brilliantly done is to challenge white folks' truth ... to see that they have a responsibility to do more than sit back and watch, but to recognize their own role in co-creating ... a fair, inclusive, truly democratic society."--Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
"Tim Wise's new book gives us the tools we need to reach people whose understanding of our country is white instead of right. And without pissing them off!"--James W. Loewen, author, Lies My Teacher Told Me
About the Author:
Tim Wise, whom scholar and philosopher Cornel West calls, "A vanilla brother in the tradition of (abolitionist) John Brown," is among the nation's most prominent antiracist essayists and educators. He has spent the past 25 years speaking to audiences throughout North America, on over 1000 college and high school campuses, at hundreds of conferences, and to community groups across the nation about methods for dismantling racism.
He is the author of seven previous books, including Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority, Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Sacrificing the Future of America and has been featured in several documentaries, including "The Great White Hoax: Donald Trump and the Politics of Race and Class in America," and "White Like Me: Race, Racism and White Privilege in America." Wise is one of five persons--including President Barack Obama--interviewed for a video exhibition on race relations in America, featured at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.